


My Heart's Descent

by KeybladeCryptography



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Breaking the Fourth Wall, For the secret ending specifically kind of, Gen, Kingdom Hearts III Spoilers, Minor Horror for approximately half a second, Something something worldline something something sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-27 20:07:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21397906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeybladeCryptography/pseuds/KeybladeCryptography
Summary: The Master of Masters sets down his quill, the lingering ink threatening to leave yet another stain on his desk. He leans back in his chair and places his arms behind his head. Like Sora.He’s been working too much.
Relationships: Master of Masters & Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 53





	My Heart's Descent

_ He remembers when the world was pure darkness. He remembers seeing light for the first time in the depths of his dimming heart and giving it form. The first color he saw was red as his _ guiding key  _ burst forth from his chest. These children don’t know anything at all. _

The Master of Masters sets down his quill, the lingering ink threatening to leave yet another stain on his desk. He leans back in his chair and places his arms behind his head. Like Sora.

He’s been working too much.

His apprentices are supposed to arrive in ten minutes. Ira and Luxu will be here in five and stare uncomfortably at each other with different degrees of murder in their eyes. It’s the perfect time to leave for a break! (“In the Master’s playful and mischievous way,” one of the Chirithys will one day say to a new generation of wielders who still think of this as nothing more than a game. That’s fine. They’ll learn. Until they do, he can only hope that the data will be enough to inspire light in their hearts, even if they dismiss the rest of it as nothing more than a fairytale.)

The darkness opens up before him and he draws his coat tighter around himself before returning to it. (It can’t hurt him anymore.) In exchange, he’s blinded by a light far brighter than the candles strewn about his study. The sun blazes overhead, scorching the sand and reflecting off the water, like the light in Sora’s eyes. (His own are similarly blue, but filled to the brim with shadows and secrets and more and more these days, a sorrow he’s desperately trying to mask.)

Right now, the Destiny Islands are empty, save for himself. On most worldlines, they won’t be discovered for another couple hundred years or so, but the exact dates vary. On a few worldlines, they’ve already been long-inhabited and the sky is bright not with sun and stars but signs and street lights. On this worldline, the Master is the only one who knows about this place and the only one who ever will. He walks up from the beach and sits beneath a tree on the path to the Secret Place, the wide leaves offering shade. He takes off his shoes to dip his feet into the cool water of the pond. The coat is soon to follow. Even in the shade, it’s still hot and there’s no one to look at, or worse, see him here.

He lies back and gazes up at the patches of sky visible between the leaves before promptly falling asleep.

Switching over is easy.

The Master is on what will become the Play Island, taking a nap in the shade. The Master is also standing atop one of Shibuya’s many skyscrapers, watching a different sky, in a different world, with a different destiny. He’s glad for his coat. It’s chilly up here. He places his hands together and holds them up to the moon as it watches indifferently. Take that, Kingdom Hearts.

Frantic footsteps slap the concrete and echo off the walls of buildings below him. The accompanying voice is familiar, though he’s never actually heard it before. “Riku! Kairi!” The Master intended to watch. The Master intended to listen. He did not intend to engage. But hey, he’s been working hard, so he’s earned it, right? It’s not like it’ll even matter this time . . . He jumps down and lands on his feet with catlike grace. Sora leaps back and falls into battle stance, Kingdom Key drawn. He’s shaking. This isn’t even the real thing.

Sorry, Sora.

The Master puts his hands up. “Hey, hey, relax Sora! Look, whatever the black coat would have you believe, I’m not with either incarnation of Organization XIII. You beat the bad guy already! Good job!” He applauds before waving his hands in the air. Sora narrows his eyes.

“Who are you? How do you know my name?” His voice sounds raw. Broken. Good. When it comes time for the real thing, that will be good. The Master can see his heart beating in his ribs, burning blindingly in a million colors. If he squints, he can imagine the crown.

He’s still sorry.

Who is he? Funny, the Master’s asked himself that question a million times over and has yet to arrive at a sound conclusion. He smiles wryly, not that anyone can see. “Someone from the dark,” he says. Truer than anyone will ever know.

“Roxas?” Sora asks. He lowers his weapon but doesn’t dismiss it.

The Master shakes his head. “Not Roxas. Not anyone you know, at least not yet.”

Sora attacks. That’s good too. The Master lets him land a few hits, just so the kid can feel a little better about himself. If this were real, his his ribs would break as Sora swings the keyblade against him. If this were real, the teeth of the key would have torn a gash in both his coat and his arm. (If this were real, he wouldn’t have let Sora attack him in the first place.) As it is, he can only play passive so long. This one doesn’t count, exactly, but it might bear some influence. He snaps his fingers and reality shifts to his will. He pulls forth thousands of keyblades from hundreds of whens and wheres and wars. Sora dismisses the Kingdom Key and he dismisses the not-quite-an-illusion.

“I’m sorry, Sora,” he says. He means it but it won’t change a thing. The future is already written. His plan is the best possible outcome.

He takes off his hood and the world becomes brighter. Sora gasps. “Y-”

The Master wakes up. His feet are cold. He puts his shoes and coat back on and the darkness opens up before him again. He ignores it for a minute, walking back down to the beach. He waves goodbye to the now-setting sun and the sea, and most of all, the sky before reluctantly trudging back to disappear into it.

He knows he won’t be returning to the Destiny Islands again.

**Author's Note:**

> If you weren't sure where I was going with this, don't worry, I didn't know either. It just kind of happened. I'm not even sure I wrote it, maybe the MoM did. Anyway. I'm on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CrepusculeChaos) so feel free to talk to me there if you want.
> 
> (Also I wasn't sure what to title this and after struggling for twenty minutes I just decided I'd choose a track I liked that seemed to fit and use that.)


End file.
